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Speakers in support of the MEK

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'Madame Rajavi does not sound like a terrorist to me: she sounds like a president,' former Vermont governor and DNC Chairman Howard Dean said in Berlin in March. Dean is shown here at a separate event in Washington in 2011. Michael Bonfigli/The Christian Science Monitor

Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani addressed a rally on Sept. 23, 2010 in protest against the presence of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the UN. The MEK-linked event is one of many where Mr. Giuliani has advocated taking the MEK off the US terrorism list. He spoke beside a portrait of the Paris-based MEK leader Maryam Rajavi. Natalie Huet/AFP

Former Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge is shown here at an MEK-linked conference called 'Taking on Tehran: Strategies for Confronting the Islamic Republic.' Dozens of former US officials, many of them receiving substantial speaking fees, have called for removal of Iran's opposition MEK from the US terrorism list. Carrie Devorah/WENN

Former US Rep. Lee Hamilton spoke at a conference organized by Executive Action entitled 'Middle East in Transition: Prospect for Iran?' in Washington on Feb. 19, 2011. The speakers, all of whom called for the Iranian opposition group MEK to be removed from the US list of terrorist organizations, included former US ambassador to the UN Bill Richardson, former US Joint Chiefs of Staff Peter Pace and Hugh Shelton, and former CIA director Michael Hayden. Nicholas Kamm/AFP

Former US ambassador to the UN Bill Richardson attended a conference organized by ExecutiveAction entitled 'Middle East in Transition: Prospect for Iran?' in Washington on Feb. 19, 2011. This event was one of more than a dozen MEK-linked speaking events in Washington and Europe that are part of a high-powered campaign to enlist senior former US officials to take the MEK off the terrorism list. Nicholas Kamm/AFP

Former Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell, pictured on April 28, has said that he recently learned about the situation of 3,400 MEK members at Camp Ashraf in Iraq and says he is determined to help them. Zuma Press/Newscom

Retired Gen. Anthony Zinni, former commander of the US Central Command, testified during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on diplomacy and military power on Capitol Hill on Mar. 5, 2008. At an MEK-linked event in January 2011, he told MEK supporters that "You are credible, you are connected, you are respected. And I am amazed that we've not reached out...." Roger L. Wollenberg/UPI

Former FBI director Louis Freeh spoke during a media conference in Brussels on July 27, 2011, where the MEK presented plans for residents of Camp Ashraf, Iraq. At similar MEK-linked events, Mr. Freeh has praised the "bravery" of the MEK for "leading the fight for freedom in Iran. Just as our military forces fight for freedom on the battlefields, you fight in a more difficult and much more dangerous place." Virginia Mayo/AP

Former US Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Hugh Shelton spoke at a conference organized by ExecutiveAction entitled 'Middle East in Transition: Prospect for Iran?' in Washington on Feb. 19, 2011. At similar pro-MEK events, where speakers have called for the removal of the MKE from the US list of terrorist
organizations, Shelton has said: "Why would we not want to put the weight and power of this country behind an organization that we know stands for the same principles we stand for, and that is the best-organized, best-led organization to take on the current Iranian regime?" Nicholas Kamm/AFP

Former CIA director Michael Hayden spoke at a conference organized by ExecutiveAction entitled 'Middle East in Transition: Prospect for Iran?' in Washington on Feb. 19, 2011. Hayden is one of a host of high-ranking former US officials who have called on the US State Dept. to recognize the MEK as the main opposition to Iran's Islamic regime, though Iran experts warn that the MEK has no popular support inside the country. Nicholas Kamm/AFP

Some of the biggest names in American politics and foreign policy have been accepting money from a State Department designated terrorist organization in recent years and lobbying the US government to bring the group in from the cold.